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Gun regulation groups grow stronger after school attack

Jackie Kucinich, USA Today

Mayor on a mission ... New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads the group Mayors Agains Illegal Guns. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

WASHINGTON: Since their early 1990s successes with laws banning assault weapons and requiring background checks for gun purchases, groups favouring gun regulations have been consistently outmanoeuvred in Congress and outspent during political campaigns.

That may be changing. In the wake of the December 14 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, pro-regulation groups have raised more money, recruited more members and attracted more attention than they have in years. They're also combining those gains with the first active support from the White House since President Clinton signed the assault weapons ban in 1994.

For example:

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has added 500,000 new members and 90 mayors in the weeks since the shooting, said Mark Glaze, the group's director.

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Former representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and seriously wounded in a January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six, started a new super PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, aimed at supporting political candidates who favour ''common sense'' measures on guns.

Steve Mostyn, a Houston lawyer, said he was donating US$1 million to Giffords' group and expects other to join him.

National Education Association members head to Capitol Hill next month and will ask politicians for ''multi-pronged … and common sense measures that will help prevent'' gun violence, according to Kim Anderson, the senior director of the NEA's Centre for Advocacy and Outreach.

MomsRising, a grass-roots network of more than one million mothers across the country, plans to deliver petitions to politicians on Capitol Hill and the NRA later this month as a part of its push for stricter gun regulations, according to Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the group's executive director.

''All kinds of organisations are going to be working on this, and we are very glad to watch 1000 flowers bloom,'' Mr Glaze said of the new activity.

They have a lot of catching up to do. Since 2007, the National Rifle Association has gone virtually unchallenged in terms of resources. It has spent more than US$36 million on lobbying , while prominent groups, such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, have spent just under US$180,000.

Meanwhile,the NRA has shaped policy to stop the government from collecting data on firearm incidents, and rolled back the influence of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The NRA told Politico it has gained 100,000 new members in 18 days and hopes to increase membership to 5 million before the debate is over.